Agenda and minutes

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The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

It was noted that the meeting was being live streamed on the Council’s website.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under agenda item 11 where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under the agenda item below. New items of exempt Urgent Business will be dealt with at agenda item 15 below).

There were no items of urgent business.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, paragraph 29 of the Council’s constitution.

None.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 15 October 2020.

To approve the minutes of the Special Staffing and Remuneration Committees held on 23 September and 2 November 2020.

RESOLVED that theminutes of the meeting held on 15 October 2020 be approved as a correct record, subject to the following amendments:

·                Item 7 – Forward Plan to March 2021 – last paragraph to state ‘recruited’ and not recruitment.

·                Item 9 – People Report – September 2020 – second bullet point – replace ‘with an approval given by Cabinet’ with ‘subject to Cabinet approval’.

·                Item 10 – Covid-19 Workforce Update – first bullet point, second sentence to be replaced with ‘It was noted that if an agency role was made permanent within the first 14 weeks of their contract a fee was paid to Hays, if the person was made permanent after this 14-week period there was no fee to be paid’.

·                Item 10 – third bullet point, correct the spelling of Whittington Hospital.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Special Staffing and Remuneration Committee held on 23 September 2020 be approved, subject to the following amendment:-

·                Remove ‘Also attending’ from the top of the minutes. 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Special Staffing and Remuneration Committee held on 2 November 2020 be approved, subject to the following amendment:-

·                Item 5 – Changes to the role of Assistant Director Corporate Governance – bullet points 2,3 and 4, replace the word ‘explained’ with ‘stated’.

The attached Gender Pay Gap Data Analysis provides an update due for publication by March 2021.

Ian Morgan, Reward Strategy Manager, introduced the report, as set out in the agenda. The Council was required to publish and report its Gender Pay Gap figures on a yearly basis, in order to comply with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.

It was noted that as the reporting was six months early there was not a lot of comparative data, however in general the figures were considered reasonable.

Officers responded to questions from the Committee:

·                It was stated that an analysis had been undertaken on the data which suggested that the pay gap had got slightly worse and no particular cause had been identified. The analysis had been carried out on a match sample, which reached no firm conclusions.

RESOLVED that the final results of the Gender Pay Gap be report be noted before they were reported on the government portal and the Committee was made aware that following publication the Council may receive both external and internal interest in the data.

As part of the council’s requirement to conduct a rolling review of all HR policies, Members are asked to consider the revised Flexible Working Policy (attached as Appendix A) and Practice Notes (attached as Appendix B).

Ian Morgan, Reward Strategy Manager, introduced the report, as set out in the agenda.  The policy had been revised at the beginning of 2020 before the scale of the coronavirus pandemic was known and before the country went into the first lockdown. Since that time valuable experience had been gained in just how flexible the workforce could be in a crisis, it was therefore felt that all that had been learnt needed to be captured in a completely revised approach to flexible working.

Officers responded to questions from the Committee:

·                It was confirmed that the policy did link to the council’s accommodation strategy. There had been a lot of dialogue surrounding what the office accommodation was used for, taking into consideration that there were a number of roles that continued to be office bound. Consideration had also been made that not everyone had a suitable space or felt comfortable to work at home and therefore some office accommodation was required to ensure that those staff could still deliver a service. The short and long options were being considered, as well as making comparisons with other London boroughs and where they may be changing their working practices.

·                In response to a question regarding the scope of the policy and senior managers, it was stated that in accordance with their contractual arrangements some of the options may not apply to all senior managers, such as flexi-time arrangements where their role was often more task based and not time specific.

·                It was confirmed that the practice notes and Flexible Working Policy would both be available on the council’s intranet.

·                The following suggestions and points to be considered as part of the policy were noted:-

o      An individual’s right to be accompanied, and or represented.

o      Include a section on IT considerations.

o      Flexi working with an end point, or for it to be renegotiated.

o      4. General Principles – third paragraph, should state that ‘no application will be agreed if it would lead to a negative impact on the delivery of the service’.

·                The suggestion to also take into consideration a request for flexible working on religious grounds would also be considered and incorporated into the policy.

RESOLVED that:

1.       The new Flexible Working Policy be approved.

2.       The Director of Customers, Transformation and Resources and the Chair of the Staffing and Remuneration Committee be delegated the power to make minor changes to the policy and practice notes without the need to refer to committee.

The report provides the Committee with the updated Haringey Model Schools Pay policy forapproval.

Julie Amory, Head of Schools HR, introduced the report, as set out in the agenda. It was explained that there had been a delay in the Department of Education issuing the updated teacher pay awards and therefore a delay in the Authority being able to update the policy. Reassurance was given that the pay award would be backdated to 1 September 2020.

Reference was made to a typing error on page 61 of the agenda and the table at 1.1.5. Ms Amory confirmed that the correct version had been circulated to the schools.

In response to a question regarding the timing of the pay award, it was stated that this was based on the academic year and not the financial year.

RESOLVED that the updated Haringey Schools Model Pay policy for September 2020 be approved and recommended for adoption to Haringey maintained Schools.

The purpose of this report is to make a recommendation to re-establish the link between the pay system and the national Joint Negotiating Committees for the purpose of determining annual inflationary pay increases from 1/4/20 onwards and for the Committee to note the commencement of a review into the pay system for senior managers (heads of service and above).

Dan Paul, Chief People Officer, introduced the report, as set out in the agenda. 

Officers responded to questions from the Committee:

·                The Chief People Officer was unsure as to the reasoning behind the de-coupling and believed that it was sensible to re-establish the link between the senior manager pay system and the national Joint Negotiating Committees.

·                In response to a question regarding performance related pay, it was stated that a pay policy system had been put in place which allowed for the contribution of performance related pay, however this had not happened.

·                It was confirmed that the current position was that if an employee was employed on the bottom of the pay range, their pay would increase by annual inflationary pay increases at present. The Chief People Officer stated that apart from being potentially inequitable, this route contained equalities risks and therefore the scheme may not be operating as intended and formed the scope of the review of the Senior Manager pay system.

·                Reference was made to information published by the tax payers alliance, which stated that Haringey employed more senior managers over £100,000 than any other London borough. In response, the Chief People Officer stated that he was unaware of this data and suggested that there were different ways of reporting this data. He believed that payment of senior managers within the council was in line with other London boroughs. 

·                In response to a further question regarding the comparison of senior manager pay across other London boroughs, it was stated that looking at the specific pay bands was outside the scope of review, however the Chief People Officer would provide a comparison in writing to committee members. 

·                It was explained that the inflationary based national pay increase was a separate process to performance related pay. Concern was raised that this could result in a large amount of wage inflation at the top of the scale. In response to the concerns raised, clarification on the recommendation was given. The committee was being asked to re-establish the link and note that a review was about to start on the senior manager pay system. It was confirmed that the views of the committee would be taken into consideration as part of the review.

·                The Vice-Chair requested that a review of the performance at the top of the organisation be added to the work programme of the committee.

·                The Committee requested to be kept fully informed of the arrangements to implement any performance related pay.

Councillor Dennison expressed concern about the approach being proposed and did not agree with the review of the senior manager pay system taking place after an approval to re-establish the link between senior manager pay system and the national Joint Negotiating Committees.

RESOLVED:

1.         The Committee approved the reestablishment of the link between the senior pay system and the national Joint Negotiating Committees (JNC) for the purpose of determining annual inflationary pay increases from 1/4/20 onwards and therefore to apply the increase agreed by the JNC’s from 1/4/20  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

There were no items of urgent business.

Items 12 and 13 are likely to be subject to a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paragraphs 1, 4.

RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of Items 13 and 14 as they contained exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paragraph 1, information relating to an individual.

To approve the exempt minutes of the Special Staffing and Remuneration Committees held on 23 September and 2 November 2020.

To note the exempt informal note of the Special Staffing and Remuneration Committee held on 17 November 2020.

RESOLVED that the exempt minutes of the Special Staffing and Remuneration Committee meetings held on 23 September, 2 November and 17 November 2020 were approved as a correct record, subject to a couple of amendments.

To note the decision taken under Urgent Action Procedures or Delegated Authority.

The Committee noted the decision taken under Urgent Action Procedures or Delegated Authority.

To consider any new items of urgent business admitted by the Chair under agenda item 3 above.

There were no items of exempt urgent business.